cool giveaway on high country mom squad

a great freebie friday today at the high country mom squad. you can win a kozy carrier, all you have to do is leave a comment. check it out : http://www.highcountrymomsquad.com/freebie-friday-kozy-baby-carrier/

tough cookies

its really hard to get a good brother/sister shot these day. and it doesn't help when you forget to wipe the mac n cheese goo of your kids face before you attempt this. but at least i got a smile out of maple. we will keep trying.

watch this video. i'm not kidding. do it.

Please go watch this captivating, entertaining, and educational video. Its only 20 minutes and trust me, well worth it. a great reminder for all of us. www.thestoryofstuff.com

what are you waiting for? do it!!

What is the Story of Stuff?

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

CRUNCH!!!!!

the advent calendar is getting full! less than 2 weeks until the big day. that means one week left until i HAVE to get packages mailed out. yikes! thank goodness i only have one more big(ish) project left to finish. this wouldn't be so bad if we were not also house hunting, taking a crash course in homebuying 101 (we are hopefully putting in an offer by weeks end), AND doing a major revamp to coyote's menu which we hope to roll out for the new year. whoa. can you say exhaustion? is that even a word, it sounds funny? please please please let the kids sleep past 5am tomorrow. PLEASE!!!! wish us luck on this house, we really love it!

deck the halls

finally got the decorations up. we have a tiny tree. i love that we can fit on top of the (fake) fireplace though. sometimes i really want a big one, but this saves a lot of stress with little ones running around. happy holidays!

giving thanks

so we had a last minute change of plans and went to visit ben's parents for thanksgiving. we found out sonny, ben's dad, won't be here for xmas this year so we wanted to get in some much needed family time with him before he left. and one more group hug! we had a very nice lunch with them and the kids had a blast. sonny built an amazing train table and maple was pretty much glued to it the entire time we were there. i don't know why i didn't get a picture. spent about 5 hours in the car, round trip, too. so needless to say we were pretty darn exhausted by the time we got home.

so, since i didn't get it done yesterday i am spending today cleaning and pulling out our tree and decorations. we don't have much so it isn't much of a chore. but i am looking forward to dolling up the house with some garland and ornaments.

and i am officially feeling the CRUNCH! i thought i had everything pretty much under control but now that T-day is past i am realizing how much i have left to do to get all of my projects completed. yikes. time to get organized.

hope everyone had a great day of feasting yesterday.

the meat is complete.

the meat of this banana, that is. yay. another xmas project going quite well. this one is for my banana obsessed little girl. tonite i will start on the peel. i think this will be my most exciting gift to give. i know she is going to LOVE it. big time.

in other ramblings, i just have to say that xmas is now LESS THAN ONE MONTH AWAY!!! seriously. i have got some work to do! tomorrow is thanksgiving and the focus of this year is NOT food, since i really can't eat much of it (yes i am still watching out for my little man and his digestive troubles.) so instead i get to focus on the other part of thanksgiving that i love - getting out the xmas decorations and putting up the tree! yeah! i am really looking forward to this. maple had a ball with the halloween decorations this year so i know she is going to really dig the xmas stuff we have. my mom made us an incredible advent calendar last year, but we didn't get it until xmas day. so this will be our first run with it. oh man. i suppose my chore today should be cleaning up the house and plowing through my to-do list so that tomorrow i can just enjoy the day and have fun with my dear hubby and kiddos.

recent knitting #4

this one is sort of a surprise. i'm working on some of these for some quick and easy little xmas gifts. can you guess what it is? all i can say is that it was fast and fun. and cute. and many more will be made!

recent knitting #3

this is my most favorit recent knit. a shawl for my mom. its a christmas gift. but since she requested it, picked out the pattern, and the yarn - well, i don't really consider this one a surprise. so i am showing it off!!! a very simple pattern, but it turned out beautiful!! i am kind of jealous and sort of would like to keep it for myself. maple would too.

this yarn, lionbrand homespun, is a little difficult to knit with. BUT it makes a very pretty and quite cuddly shawl. so its plenty worth it. i WILL make one of these for myself. after the holidays.

recent knitting #2

this is my norweigan star hat. my first project using 2 different colors of yarn (this is called 'fair isle' knitting, i learned). it was fun to do and i am pretty pleased with my first attempt at fair isle work. it did take me several weeks to complete this hat though. it takes some serious concentration to follow the chart of the snowflake pattern.

unfortunately this hat turned out hugemungous!!! even though i followed the child size pattern, it is actually too big even for myself. bummer. i guess this is why it is important to figure out your guage before you start a project. i am too lazy to do that.

oh well. its still pretty cute, in an oversized hat on a little kid kind of way. and it does keep her head warm. so i guess not all is lost.

recent knitting #1

ok. so this is not extremely recent. i finished this in mid-october. but its damn cute! another ltk pilot cap for alaska. it turned out great and i finished it just in time for the cold weather.

isn't he a cutie! i LOVE LOVE LOVE this hat!

WINTER!!!

WOW!! winter is HERE! it snowed twice last week and has been downright frigid. woke up to 14 degrees yesterday. BRRRRRRRRRRRRR. this morning we've got freezing rain in the forecast and MORE snow tomorrow. the snowfalls have really been beautiful and maple has LOVED playing in the snow.

ben got her a sled and they cruised up and down the road. she had a lot more fun than the pictures might tell you, (she has a straight face for the camera these days.)

alaska and i couldn't hang too long in the brutal cold. i love this shot though. he's saying "oooooh, its cold!"

what do you think of the kids hats? i love alaska's. has to be my favorite baby hat pattern (another ltk pilot cap.) maples is WAY HUGER than it looks in the pic. its actually too big even for me. don't know how that happened. i'm not real thrilled with it, but haven't gotten around to making her a new one yet. i will try to post some better pics later.

hope everyone's staying warm!

my kids got style

and she loves her dog.

daddy = zzzzzzzzzzz

we've started working on getting alaska off the boob at night. so he's been sleeping with ben and learning some different forms of sleepy comfort. well that daddy must be good stuff! ben took A while i started dinner, was holding him less than five minutes when i found this. what a cutie. ain't nothing like a snooze in daddy's arms. or arm.

YES WE DID!!!!!!

thank you will.i.am for creating these kick ass videos.

gramzee love

just had a great visit with my mom. isn't this the best picture? she was here for 2 weeks and it flew by. we had so much fun and didn't take enough pictures, as usual! i will try to catch up this weekend but just wanted to share.

for you

hi there

yes, i abandoned my blog for over two months. SORRY! i knew it would happen eventually. i'm just not one for keeping up on things like that. i will try to do better. ok.

so whats been going on in the z-w house? well in august we had a nice visit in brevard with ben's folks. maple had her very first overnight with granny and opa all by herself. she loved it. ben and i both had birthdays (this is my last year as a twenty something). it was a good month. in september ben went to michigan while maple went to granny and opa's and alaska and momma stayed home ALONE. it was a vacation for everyone.

in my everyday life i have been hanging with the kids, working on coyote projects, thinking about the holidays (i love them), learning how to digital scrapbook, decluttering my home, and looking forward to my mom's visit at the end of the month.

ben has been working at coyote, cooking during the week, doing his disc golf tournaments twice a week, and heading to brevard with maple a couple times a month to watch football games.

maple is 2 1/2. she is using sentences and singing songs. she knows her abcs and can count to twelve. she is a great big sister.

alaska is 6 months old now. wow. he is doing big things like rolling over and trying to sit up and teething and talking nonstop and being the sweetest happiest little boy ever.

so the family is well and we are just enjoying the nice fall weather and pretty colors that are starting to pop out. its my favorite time of year and this is such a great area to spend it in.

and i'll try to keep this a little more current from now on.

my new do

this weekend i made a change.

after 5 plus years of growing and living the long haired life, i did it. watauga medical was having a cancer awareness event and nelson of nelson's salon was volunteering his time and skills to gather donations for locks of love. i've been thinking about making the chop since maple was born. over 2 years. and when i heard about this chance i just jumped right in.

now, i have always enjoyed growing my hair long and then cutting it super short. in the past i have always been so ready i actually took the scissors to my hair myself. i was not quite so ready this time.

the experience itself was a little strange. i didn't really know what i wanted. and it was definitely weird to get my hair cut in an auditorium with a bunch of people watching. there were no mirrors so i couldn't even see what was happening to my head. afterward everyone told me how good it looked and seemed so happy.

then i got home and looked in the mirror.

you know, i never took myself for the type of person that would cry over a haircut. but i did. i cried. i hated it. it was not me. it was horrible. breath, breath, breath. obsessively look in the mirror and wonder what i was going to do until it grew back. i was happy to have the chance to donate my hair and truly appreciative if nelson's time and the fact that i got a free cut. but i just was not accepting what was on my head. it was bad and i was sad. then i slept.

it was easier to look in the mirror yesterday and i started working on a little acceptance. today i gave it a good washing (yeah, i don't shower everyday) and got all that "style" out. and you know what? it worked. its actually not bad. and i'm starting to remember all the fun things you can do with short hair. and i'm totally digging my new look. i really needed a change.

so here is the before and after:

this is me with long hair.

oh yeah, thats the stuff.

but now its short.

its pretty cute.

and i am oh so happy!!!

my first sweater!!!

i finished my first sweater last night. this was a really simple pattern, right up my alley. it was knit all in one piece and then seamed up the sides. i am not very good at seaming. its a little bigger than newborn size and fits alaska just right. no, he doesn't really need a sweater in july. but i wanted to see how this patterned turned out.

this is the sweater in progress

and here is my little man modeling the finished project

4 months

13lbs 5oz

24 inches

super stander

super smiler

discovered the hands and the feet

sensitive tummy

bundle of joy

LTK pilot cap

by far the cutest thing i have ever seen on my kids head! i made the smallest size with some yarn from my cotton dishcloth stash. i just wanted to try out this pattern and make sure i actually got it before using some nicer yarn. i have to say, it turned out SO GOOD!!! i love the color patterns and it kind of fits alaska, though i'm sure he'll have it outgrown by the end of the month.

this is a pattern from little turtle knits. it was so well written and explained everything so well. i can't wait to make these for our winter hats. and i can't wait to try out some more LTK patterns.

wisdom, cabled hat.

i am learning some important life lessons as i knit. like this hat. cables are something that i have always just assumed would be really hard and not worth the effort of trying. major intimadation factor. but i just got some guts, tried them out and you know what? they were so unbelievably easy! i'm proud of this hat, for the fact that i took a chance in doing something i wasn't comfortable with, and in my opinion it turned out great. it even fits my head. so i've gained a little confidence and learned this lesson: don't say you can't do something until you've actually put out the effort to try it. and when we go for the things that scare us the most we can become better stronger people (and knitters).

my momentous day

yesterday was a BIG day. some really awesome things happened.

to start out, i put on a pair of pants that WERE NOT maternity pants. HELLS YEAH!!!! at long last! i came home from the hospital weighing about 40 pounds more than i did before i got pregnant and i have been hard at work over the last few months to drop drop drop that weight. major milestone here. now i still have about 20 pounds and three sizes to go before i get to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes, but seriously it feels so good to say goodbye to those preggo pants.

and the whole reason i even got dressed yesterday?

say goodbye to my cheap crappy dead battery old cell phone and HELLO to my amazingly awesome super dooper new iPhone!!!!

oh yes. i am the very proud owner of a new iPhone 3G. definitely the coolest techy electronical thing i've ever owned. these suckers went on sale at 8am yesterday morning and yes we stood in line with both kids to get one. luck was definitely on our side. ben drove by the at&t store at 6am on his way into coyote and saw no line so we made no rush getting to the store. we got to the mall a little after seven and saw a line had formed but it wasn't that big so we went and got some coffee and mosied over to stand and wait. then we found out our store only had 20 phones to sell. thats right, 20 PHONES. what!?! i mean the line wasn't long but it wasn't that short either. were we screwed? holy cow!! our numbers in line? 19 and 20!!!! i couldn't believe it. seriously lucky. our kids were total troopers too and did so well as we waited from 7:30 until just past 9 to get into the store. you may have heard about the apple server crash which is why we waited so long and then never even got our phones working. we finally left the store at 10:30 and got our phones working sometime after 2 in the afternoon. so worth all the trouble though. i LOVE my new phone.

after setting up and playing with my new toy for a few hours i got down to business and finished seaming the second of the two cowls i have been knitting.

yay!!! another finished project. these were really fun to make. i think i will keep the blue one and gift the green. for my next project i am going to try to knit cables in a hat pattern i really like with yarn that i don't like so much but really need to use up.

and so concludes my momentous day.

CUTE KIDDO ALERT!!